An electronic component mounting apparatus has a head having a nozzle, suctions an electronic component by the nozzle, and mounts the electronic component on a board. The electronic component apparatus is configured to suction the electronic component in a component supply device by moving the nozzle of the head in a direction orthogonal to the surface of the board, and to subsequently move the head relatively in a direction parallel to the surface of the board until the nozzle reaches the mounting position of the electronic component where the nozzle of the head is moved in the direction orthogonal to the surface of the board so as to approach the board, thereby mounting the electronic component on the board.
Related art electronic component mounting apparatuses include means for checking the electronic components held by an electronic component accommodating tape that is loaded in a feeder of the component supply device. JP2004-200296A describes a mismounting prevention system provided in an electronic component mounting apparatus in which, when attaching the electronic component accommodating tape to the tape feeder of the component supply device, in order to detect the electronic components prepared in positions in the component supply device, a bar code adhered to the electronic component accommodating tape is read and whether the electronic component accommodating tape is appropriate is determined based on the read information. In this system, by using a bar code recognition system and identifying the type of the electronic component accommodating tape by the bar code, the occurrence of mismounting of electronic components on the board is reduced.
JP10-341096A and JP2004-228442A describe to replenish the component supply device with electronic components by a so-called splicing method in which when the number of remaining components accommodated in one electronic component accommodating tape becomes small, the front end of an electronic component accommodating tape accommodating components of the same kind is connected to the rear end of the previous electronic component accommodating tape for replenishment of components. JP10-341096A and JP2004-228442A also describe means for detecting that the electronic component accommodating tape is changed.
JP10-341096A describes to provide a sensor that detects the connection part of electronic component accommodating tapes, and to detect a mark formed in the connection part by the sensor to detect the connection part of the electronic component accommodating tapes, thereby detecting that the electronic component accommodating tape is changed. JP2004-228442A describes to detect whether there is an electronic component in each electronic component storage cell of the electronic component accommodating tape and to determine that the electronic component accommodating tape is changed when storage cells are continuously empty for a given number of times.
By changing the electronic component accommodating tape and replenishing electronic components by the splicing method, the component supply device can be replenished with electronic components without production being stopped, so that the operation rate of the electronic component mounting apparatus can be increased.
In the system described in JP2004-200296A, since the mounting work is stopped to change the tape feeder each time electronic components on the electronic component accommodating tape of the component supply device run out, the improvement of work efficiency is limited. In a case in which the electronic component accommodating tape is changed to replenish electronic components by the splicing method, since electronic component accommodating tapes are connected, even though the information on the electronic component accommodating tape is read from the bar code, it is difficult to synchronize with the timing of change of the electronic component accommodating tape.
According to the method described in JP10-341096A, since the electronic component mounting apparatus is provided with a sensor (for example, an optical sensor) in order to detect the connection part of electronic component accommodating tapes, it is necessary to provide each component supply device with a sensor that detects the connection part of electronic component accommodating tapes. Moreover, in the component supply device, a plurality of feeders are each mounted with an electronic component accommodating tape. Thus, to provide an optical sensor for each, the number of components of the apparatus increases, so that the size of the electronic component mounting apparatus increases. Moreover, according to the method in which a mark is detected by an optical sensor, trouble or malfunction may occur due to adhesion of dirt, so that detection accuracy is not stable.
According to the method described in JP2004-228442A, the empty cell determination is made based on an idle operation accompanied by a movement of the suction nozzle and the result of detection by a height sensor or the like. Thus, detection takes time and reduces work efficiency. Moreover, change of the electronic component accommodating tape cannot be detected unless the number of empty cells at the connection part of the electronic component accommodating tapes is fixed.